Protomage
by goodpie2
Summary: Alex Mercer is thrown into a world with elves, halflings, and magic.
1. Chapter 1

Notes about Alex: Since he is no longer in a game, his abilities are not limited by the need to make play difficult. This means that his abilities will be significantly enhanced. Firstly, he will be much harder to damage through conventional means. Since Mercer has no actual organs or blood, the only way to harm him is to kill as many cells as possible. This means that things like swords and arrows will hardly hurt him at all. Secondly he is able to consume any living creature. He can't consume dead material, since cells start to decay almost immediately, or plants, since their cell structure is so different. Lastly, he is able to switch powers on the fly, and can take the form of any creature he has consumed. Speaking of powers, since I never actually used all of his abilities, some of them may be missing, especially devastators; others will be present even though they weren't in the game, because they make sense. He can also take the form of anything, not just creatures he has consumed.

Oh, and another thing- this Mercer isn't as evil as most of the ones on this site. As far as I can tell from the game, he _isn't _evil- he shows remorse for his actions at the end of the game, and he _did _risk his life to save the world, after all.

Next- about the magic. This magic system is a blatant rip-off of that used in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, so I should probably give him some credit. The story doesn't actually take place in Alera (although I may do that later. The idea of Mercer against the Vord is too much fun), it just uses that system of magic.

Lastly- this is my first attempt at writing. While constructive criticism, advice, etc. are always helpful, and I would very much like to know of0 any errors or mistakes I make (including spelling or grammatical errors), please cut me a little slack.

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Alex Mercer groaned- his entire body hurt like hell. Then he froze- his body hurt. That meant that he had a body. That meant that he was not, in fact, dead. Which made no sense. He'd been flying a nuclear bomb away from Manhatten. It had exploded. He should have been vaporized. Instead, he was on land. Which also didn't make sense- he'd been miles away from Manhatten when the nuke had gone off. He opened his eyes.

"Fuck."

There were two moons.

"Where the hell am I?" Mercer asked himself as he stood up and looked around. He was in a large plain, with knee high grass and sparse trees. In the distance, the sun was starting to rise. He searched the memories of all of the people he'd consumed- not one of them had a clue where he was.

Figuring one way was as good as another, he started running towards the sunrise.

A little while later, he saw smoke. Figuring it meant there was a town or farmhouse nearby, he angled towards it. As he approached the source of the smoke, he slowed down- he didn't want to scare people by showing off his abilities, and running around at a hundred miles an hour was likely to do just that.

He came over a hill and looked at the town. To be honest, "village" was probably a better word, judging by the size. It couldn't have held more than a few hundred people.

_Well, at least it's civilization. Technically. _Mercer thought to himself. He started walking towards the open gates.

As he entered the gate, he froze. It was like he'd been blasted into a fantasy video game. In front of him was what was clearly a dwarf. Not a midget- a fucking _dwarf._ It was muscular, about four feet tall, with a two foot beard, and was wearing what Mercer's stolen memories informed him was half plate armor, with a gleaming battleaxe slung at his side. Shit writing is hard. Next to the dwarf was a tall man wearing chainmail and carrying a shortsword, with a longbow on his back. As he watched, the dwarf and the man walked into a nearby building. The sign above the door showed a man with pointed ears slouched over a large, foaming mug, with writing in a language that Mercer couldn't recognize. Despite his inability to read the sign, it was fairly evident that this was a bar. Figuring that this was as likely a place as any to gain information, Mercer went in.

What he saw inside confirmed his suspicions that he was _not _in Kansas anymore. A man with leather armor, a long sword, and pointed ears was sitting next to a child wearing leather armor with a rapier at his side. Mercer immediately realized that this "child" must be what his memories called a "halfling," and the man was probably an elf. At another table was what was obviously an orc. Huge- check. Green skin- check. Tusks- check. Definitely an orc. The man and the dwarf were standing at the bar, chatting with the bartender. Both of them looked up as Mercer approached.

"Hav un gorbon thill?" The baritender said.

_Shit_. Mercer couldn't understand the local language. Of course not- he wasn't on Earth. Hell, he probably wasn't in the same god damned _universe_ anymore. What were the odds that they'd speak any language found on Earth? Until he consumed someone who spoke the language, he'd be screwed.

Mercer scowled and left the inn. He'd be back later.

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Mercer sat on top of a building and watched the sun go down. Finally, it was approaching night. He'd be able to find a victim now.

He'd considered just consuming the first person he found alone, but had eventually discarded that idea. He had enough innocent blood on his hands. In the three weeks that he'd been alive Mercer had killed hundreds of people. True, many of them had been those Blackwatch or Gentek bastards, but many others had been innocent bystanders who'd just been there when he needed biomass. Still more were innocent soldiers. While Blackwatch troopers almost invariably deserved to die (of the 604 troopers Mercer had consumed, seven had not deserved it), the soldiers were a different matter. Few of them were willing to kill innocent bystanders just because they had happened to be near the infection, and some had even argued with Blackwatch members in the process of doing exactly that.

The point was, since Redlight had been neutralized, he could no longer justify the killing of innocents. Before, he'd told himself that if he died, or failed to accomplish his mission, then millions more would be killed, so it was acceptable to consume whoever he needed to in order to survive. Now, no lives were in the balance.

All of this had led to a rather simple solution- Alex was going to get mugged. That would provide him with someone who spoke the language and deserved to die.

After he had learned some of the basics of this world, he would see about finding a way to get back to Earth and, more importantly, Dana.

Switching to thermal vision, he scanned the nearby alleyways. _There. _Hiding behind a corner were three large, burly men who appeared to be holding weapons of some kind. He jumped down from the rooftop he was on and made his way to the alley in question. As he walked into the narrow street, he continued watching his victims. From their reactions to the sound of his footsteps, they were obviously anticipating his approach. As he came level with their hiding spot, they stepped out- two behind him, blocking any retreat to the road, and one in front. The one in front of him was tall and muscular, but not brutishly so, with a black goatee and a rapier in one hand.

The man said something in his native language, and brandished his rapier.

"I'm afraid I can't understand you," Mercer replied, grinning.

The man frowned, then took a step forward. At the same time, Mercer grew his hands into claws. The mugger stared as biomass pulsed and wormed around Alex's hands, causing them to grow larger, and his fingers to lengthen and harden. In a moment, his fingers had changed into foot long, gleaming, red and black claws, harder than steel, and razor sharp. The man froze, then turned to run, but it was far too late for that (the other men in the alley were running too, but they didn't really matter- Alex only needed one victim). Mercer lept, claws extended, and picked the man up. Still grinning, he extended his tendrils into the screaming mugger's body and devoured him. There was a clang as the man's sword, belt buckle, coins, and some other inorganic material fell to the ground, and Mercer's smile broadened. Not only could he now speak Elustrian, the world's standard language, he also knew Orc and Elven. He'd also learned a great deal about the world itself. From what the man believed, Alex _had _been blasted into some sort of fantasy world. The most notable issue was the existence of furies- creatures that lived in the "elements" of the world. There were six kinds of elements- fire, air, earth, water, wood, and metal. Some people were bonded to one or more furies. This allowed a person to control the element of his fury. What was more, the more powerful the furies the person was bonded to, the more powerful the "crafter." Furies also came with different passive abilities. Earthcrafters, for example, were incredibly strong, while windcrafters were incredibly quick and agile. Most crafters hardly had enough power to do much more than help with the housework. Others had basic furies- a moderate increase in strength, and slight control over the earth, for example. Some rare crafters, however, were extremely powerful. What was more, the more powerful the crafter, the more likely it was that he was bonded to multiple furies. Unfortunately, all this information, while interesting (if it was even true- since Pierre, the mugger, had only seen basic furycrafting, it was fully possible that what he _had _seen had been a trick of some sort), didn't particularly help Alex- furies were not genetic, and weren't a matter of skill or knowledge. Which meant that he couldn't gain them by consuming enemies.

Alex growled at this knowledge and turned away from the dead mugger's belongings, then paused. While he had no need for a weapon, the man's cash might come in handy. He had no idea how long he'd be in this world, and while he didn't eat or sleep, he may have need for cash for other purposes. His decision made, he picked up the coins that had fallen, formed a "pocket" in his body, and put the coins there. He debated taking the rapier, so that he would be able to fight without revealing his powers, but decided against it- Pierre hadn't actually been trained with it, he'd just thought it looked better than a club, and since he rarely had to actually fight anybody, had forgone to _get _any training. This meant that Alex couldn't and left the empty alley.

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The next morning, Alex walked into the inn- The Drunken Elf, it was called- for the second time. The only other person in the room at the time was the bartender, so Alex walked up to the counter.

"Hello there. I was wondering if I'd see you againg. From the way you acted yesterday, I thought I may have offended you somehow," the bartender said cheerfully.

"Not at all. I was just annoyed because I realized I couldn't understand your language." Alex grinned.

The bartender raised an eyebrow. "What, and you've learned it since yesterday?"

"I'm a _very _fast learner, if I have somebody to teach me." Alex said, his grin widening.

"Ummm... I see," replied the bartender, slightly unsettled. He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that this stranger was making some sort of joke. "Anyway, what can I do for you?"

"I was just wondering if there was a way I could get directions to the nearest city." Pierre hadn't ever been outside of this town in his life, so Mercer hadn't been able to find out anything about that from him. He _had _been able to find out that none of the people in this city would be able to get him back to Dana.

"I couldn't help you myself, but there's a caravan leaving for Bernad in about a week."

"Do you think anybody is leaving sooner?"

"Well," the bartender frowned, "we had a few... gentlemen come into town the other day. From the looks of them, they'd prefer to have somewhere to spend a significant amount of gold, so they'll probably be leaving soon. Would that suit you?"

"That would be perfect."

"In that case, have a seat. One of them should be up fairly soon."

"Thanks." Alex said, and sat down at the table.

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A few hours later, a man in a chain shirt and a black cloak came down the stairs and approached the bar. He chatted with the bartender for a few minutes, during which time Alex could see the bartender point in his direction, and heard the words "travel," "leave," and "Bernad." After a while, the man in black pulled some coins out of his pocket, gave them to the bartender, and approached Mercer.

"Morning," he said. "I'm Davion. Otis tells me that you want someone to guide you to Bernad?" the man said.

"That's correct." Mercer said.

"Well, my companions and I are headed that way. We're going to have a... detour for a few days, but we should still get you to Bernad quicker than any caravan. The only issue is the detour. We'd rather not bring a bystander along. Can you fight?"

Mercer smirked. "You could say that."

"Very good. I'll talk to my companions when they've awoken. When can you be ready to leave?"

"I'd already be gone if I had a clue where the hell I was going." Mercer replied.

"So you can leave today?"

"Yes."

"Excellent." Davion turned and began walking away, then paused. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Mercer. Alex Mercer."

"It's nice to meet you, Alex Mercer." Davion said, before sitting down at another table (Alex noted that he put his back to the wall, and had a direct line of sight to all the entrances to the room).

A few minutes later, a barmaid came out with a tray of food and set it in front of Davion before turning to Mercer.

"Would you like anything to eat?" she asked.

Mercer declined the offer, and she went back into the kitchen.

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Alex watched as Davion talked to the dwarf and the man Alex had seen earlier. They began speaking in low voices. After a few minutes, the dwarf went upstairs, before coming back down with a young woman, also in half plate armor, with a longsword. She went to her companions' table and began talking to them. After a few minutes of talking, Davion beckoned for Mercer to join them.

"Well, my friend, we have a deal. These are Omgar, Leanna, and Roy." Davion pointed in turn at the dwarf, the woman, and the man with the bow. "You can travel with us if you help us clear out a tribe of orcs that's been harassing traders in the area. That's the 'detour' I mentioned. It shouldn't take more than a few days."

"Sounds fine. When do we leave?" Mercer asked.

"Now," Davion replied, and stood up. "We just stopped here for some supplies on our way there. There's no reason to stay in this town any longer."

"Good. I'd like to get going as soon as possible.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Prototype.

Laluzi- thanks for the advice. I'll try and put more emphasis on his thoughts in the future and slow the story down, but I doubt I'll be good at it. I'm too inexperienced, and entirely too eager to get this show on the road. As for the paragraph explaining furycraft- it reads like an infodump because it's intended to be one, and I couldn't really think of a way to make it seem like it wasn't. I needed to explain furycrafting, and he'd find out about it from the first person he consumed, so that seemed like the most logical time to do so.

After the nuclear bomb went off, Alex Mercer woke up in a different world- one with magic, elves, orcs, etc. Hoping to find a way home, he has fallen in with a group of adventurers headed to a nearby city, who agreed to guide him there if he helped clear out a tribe of orcs.

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Mercer, Omgar, Leanna, and Roy waited for Davion to return. They were a few days' travel from Bernad, and had made their "detour" to the orcs' cave. They had paused a few hundred yards from the entrance, and Davion had gone ahead to scout the area out.

Alex almost killed the very man they were waiting for when he materialized in front of them without any warning.

"The entrance isn't well guarded- there's just one orc there, and he's half asleep. He does have a couple of dogs with him, though, so we won't be able to get close without giving away our presence." Davion said as though nothing had happened.

"So, let's just kill the damned things!" growled Omgar. "Besides, they're just orcs. It's not like we need to be particularly careful anyway."

"You know, I thing Omgar may actually be right about that. Unless they have particularly powerful crafters in their tribe, they shouldn't be too much of a threat to us, and if they _did _have powerful crafters, they'd probably be making more of a nuisance than just raiding occaisonal caravans." Leanna said after a pause.

"What if they have earthcrafters with them? They could just seal the caves shut, and we'd be locked out. Unless you're an earthcrafter, Mercer?" Roy said, looking at Alex.

"No, I'm not. However, I doubt that they'd be able to make a wall that can keep me out." Alex smirked.

His companions raised their eyebrows at this, but when Alex offered no explanation, Davion simply nodded.

"Very well. If Alex is confident that he can handle any defenses they may try to put up, then a frontal assault should be fine."

They agreed, and moved towards the entrance.

The first thing the orc knew of his attackers was the arrow in his eye. He slumped over, and fell. The dogs, smelling his blood, began barking vicously as the Mercer, Davion, Omgar, and Leanna charged, while Roy followed more slowly, bow drawn. As they poured into the cave, Mercer switched to thrermal vision, and Omgar ordered his flame fury to light his axe so that his companions could see.

They were in moderately sized cave, with a wooden door at one end, and a table in the middle. Around this table sat four orcs, who immediately stood and drew their weapons as the intruders entered. One of them rang a gong and before standing up, and Davion threw a dagger at him with lightning speed. The dagger hit the orc squarely in the throat, and he staggered and fell. Omgar leapt at the nearest orc, and swung his flaming axe. The orc, who had grabbed a club, blocked, and swung at the dwarf, but Omgar dodged, and lodged his axe in the creature's skull. Leanna went for another with her sword, and stabbed it in the gut before turning to the last remaining orc, only to find Alex removing his fist from a gaping hole in its torso.

She stared for a moment, then turned towards the others.

"Well, they sure as hell know we're here now. Let's get going before they have time to prepare themselves," she said. Her allies nodded, and Davion opened the door.

"Oh crap." Roy said. The room on the other side of the door was closer to a cavern, and had apparently been made into a sort of mess hall. Where the orcs were currently eating. Several dozen of them. Thanks to the gong, they had all stood up and began drawing weapons.

"What?" said Alex, "I thought orcs weren't much of a threat to you guys."

"Ordinarily, they wouldn't be, because you usually don't have to fight more than ten or so at once. In this case, however..." he trailed off.

"Well, I guess it's up to me, then." Alex grinned. He was going to enjoy this. With that, he jumped. The others stared as he flew into the air, while his body pulsed and crawled, tendrils squirming around him. By the time he landed, his skin had changed to some sort of black material, and his hands had extended into enormous claws.

"What. The. Hell." Leanna asked as they watched the ensuing massacre.

Mercer turned to the nearest orc and tore its head from its body. Picking up the corpse, he flung it into the another one of the brutes with enough force to send it flying across the room before turning to yet another and dismembering it. He tore through the entire tribe like a tornado, leaving bits of orc and corpses behind him. Suddenly, a flaming wolf attacked him, with an enourmous, eight foot tall orc behind it weilding an great, burning warhammer. Mercer roared as the flames burned through the chitin of his armor, then jumped away. He slammed his claw into the ground, and roared again as the wolf burned the spike that appeared in its middle. The fire fury, on the other hand, ignored the attack and leapt towards Mercer. Realizing that he couldn't harm the creature, Mercer decided to take on another tactic- destroying its master. He leapt into the air and landed directly behind the only living orc still in the room- the one that had attacked him. The creature whirled and swung with its hammer, hitting Alex squarely in the head.

Davion winced as he saw the blow land- that would have killed a normal human being. Alex, however, was clearly not a normal human, if he was one at all. The black, clawed creature that was Alex Mercer simply shrugged off the blow, then grabbed the orc by the throat. Dark red tendrils extended from Mercer's body and entered the orc, then tore it apart. The tendrils retracted into Mercer's body, taking the remains of the orc with them.

Mercer turned to the flame fury, only to watch it dissipate, its master dead. His skin crawled and biomass shifted as he resumed his normal appearance, then turned to his companions to offer an explanation.

Before he had an opportunity to do so, an arrow impaled him in the head.

"What the FUCK was that?!" Mercer yelled, ripping out the arrow. "I just killed about fifty of those bastards, including their chief, and without any help from you! I'd expect maybe a 'thank you, Mercer,' but instead, you shoot me in the face. Do you WANT to die?" He glared at Roy, who had drawn another arrow.

"No, which is why I attacked the monster that has been masquerading as a human. I would rather not meet the same fate as the orc you just killed, thank you very much," Roy responded.

"Calm down, you two," Davion said before Alex could say anything back, "Roy- Mercer _did _kill the orcs, and he hasn't attacked us. However," he turned to Alex, "I believe you do owe us an explanation."

"That's fair." Mercer agreed, "The truth is, I'm not human, and I'm not from this world. I don't know how I got here, but I'm hoping to find a way home. That's why I want to go to Bernad- hopefully there will be someone who knows how to help me get back home."

"You're not human. We guessed that. What _are _you?" Davion said.

"I'm not sure how to explain it. Put simply, I'm a virus."

"A virus? As in a disease?" Davion asked, "Perhaps you should start from the beginning."

Mercer hesitated. "Very well. Here's what happened..."

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"Well. That was certainly an interesting tale," said Davion a little while later, as the group digested what Mercer had told them.

Mercer shrugged. "I had hoped not to have to tell it. That's why I didn't tell you what I could do ahead of time. If we had only encountered small groups of orcs, I would probably have been able to do just fine using only my hands. As it was... I might have been able to win, but it wouldn't have been easy, and I almost certainly would have had to consume orcs to regenerate biomass, anyway, which would have..."

"I'm sorry, but do you honestly expect us to believe any of that?" interrupted Omgar. "You really think we'll buy the idea that someone from another universe created a shapeshifting, intelligent disease? It's a hell of a lot more likely that you're just some kind of demon. We should kill you now."

"Do you really want to try?" Alex smirked, transforming his hands into claws again, "You saw what I did to those orcs, and you said yourself that you wouldn't have been able to take them on."

Omgar hesitated.

"I think," Roy said, "that making the attempt would be unwise."

Omgar frowned. "But if he _is _a demon, and we didn't even try, then we would be responsible for letting him run free."

"And if we _did _try, he'd slaughter us, and then nobody else would know what he could do," argued Roy.

"Why don't we take him to King Scipio?" Davion said, "That way he can decide whether Mercer is telling the truth about his nature."

"And what incentive do I have to go along with this plan?" Asked Mercer.

"Simple. The king is one of the most powerful crafters in the world. He may be able to get you home. And if he's not, he may give you resources to find out who can."

"And if he decides to kill me?"

"Well, then it sucks to be you," Davion replied, "I suspect, however, that that's a chance you'll have to take if you want to get home."

Mercer thought about this for a moment. He did want to get home as quickly as possible. Dana was still in her coma, and the remains of Blackwatch were still loose. If they found Dana while he wasn't there...

"Fine. I'll go with you," he said reluctantly.

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Sorry this chapter is so short, and I'm sorry if I'm moving too quickly- as I said, I'm eager to put Alex into a world with powers that aren't his own. And yeah, I could have gone into more detail when he slaughtered the orcs, but why bother? He was gonna massacre them, and it would have been a long, boring paragraph describing various gory deaths.

This story may take a brief hiatus while I work on my writing skills. If it does, I will be writing Protoshock (a Bioshock/Prototype crossover) for a little while- since the plot for Bioshock is already written, and I'll mostly follow it, I can spend more time working on my abilities instead of figuring out what the hell the characters are going to do. That said, it's entirely possible that I'll just decide "screw it, I want to write Protomage some more," and keep writing this. Either way, I hope to have a new chapter out within a couple of weeks.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry it's taking so long for me to update this. The problem is, I have no idea what I'm going to do with this story, so it takes forever to write a chapter.

By the way, if you want a fantastic Prototype fanfic, read Unfamiliar, by Cpl_Facehugger. It's located here- forums. spacebattles threads/ unfamiliar-znt-prototype-thread-ii.197517/

It's a crossover with Prototype and Familiar of Zero, but you don't actually have to know anything about Familiar of Zero to understand the story. I do suggest that you don't read chapter 12, because it has a huge cliffhanger, and Cpl_Facehugger has decided that he is going to post the entire story at once, instead of updating it.

Alex has found himself in a world of magic, and fallen in with a group of adventurers. He has decided to visit King Scipio of Tyria, one of the most powerful furycrafters in the world, in hopes that the king can help him get home.

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"So, your majesty, I need to get back to my world as soon as possible," Alex said, finishing his story for King Scipio.

The king looked thoughtful for a moment, and then leaned back in his ornate throne.

"I see. Tell me, why should I help you get back to your world? I see no reason to help you."

Alex extended his hands into claws. "If you keep me from my sister, I fucking will tear you to shreds."

At this, the guards on either side of the king raised their weapons, and were preparing to attack Alex when the king raised his hand, signaling for them to stand down.

"Your devotion to your sister is admirable, mister Mercer, but threatening me will not get you anywhere. However, I believe we could make a deal. You see, my kingdom is currently on the brink of war, and I can see an enormous number of uses for someone with your particular skills. If you were to aid me in the coming conflict, I will do whatever I can to get you home. Do we have a deal?"

Alex nodded. He didn't like being used, but he needed to get back to Dana as soon as possible.

"Good," said Scipio, "I will contact you with your first mission shortly."

Mercer nodded and left the throne room.

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"So, how'd it go?" Davion asked as Mercer came out of the palace.

In the three weeks it had taken them to get to Flin'kae, the capital city of Tyria, they had formed a sort of cautious friendship.

"He wants me to be his spy in exchange for his help," growled Alex.

Davion nodded.

"I expected something like that. Scipio isn't one to give help without getting something in return."

"You know, it would have been nice to know that ahead of time."

"Would it have made any difference?" Davion pointed out.

"No, but I still would have liked to know."

"I'll keep that in mind."

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A few days later, Scipio called Alex to the audience chamber.

"I have decided on your first mission," the king explained.

Alex nodded.

"There is a creature near the town of Delstar, which has plagued the area for longer than living memory. If anybody possessing a fury goes near it, it absorbs their fury and adds its power to its own. It does not actually use their active powers, simply their passive ones- meaning that for each air fury it consumes, it becomes faster, and for each earth fury, it becomes stronger. By the time we figured out what it did, it had gained too much power to be killed by any normal human, and furycrafters only made it stronger. If you are as powerful as you claim, then you are our only chance of killing this creature."

"Where is it, and what does it look like?"

"It is located in a cave a few miles to the east of Delstar."

At this, Scipio looked at one of his guards and nodded. The man went out through a door in the side of the audience chamber, and came back with a red headed man carrying a large warhammer.

"This is Trinad. He will be your guide to Delstar, and will take you to the beast's lair. He will not aid you in your fight against it, he will merely show it to you, and evaluate your performance."

Alex didn't like the idea of having a babysitter, but didn't see that he had any choice in the matter, so he settled for scowling at the king, then turning and leaving the throne room.

Trinad came hurrying out of the audience chamber after Alex.

"What are you doing? You can't just walk out on the king like that!"

"That conversation was over."

"You idiot! Be glad the king is in a good mood, or you'd lose your head."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Alex shot back with a smirk.

"I mean it. You could be executed for that kind of insolence."

"I'd like to see him try. If the entire American marine corps and Blackwatch couldn't take me down, I doubt a few primitive idiots with swords could do it."

"We're not primitive!," Trinad bristled, "and what are the American marine corps and Blackwatch?"

"Branches of the American military. America is the country I was made in."

"What? A country's military was trying to kill you? And King Scipio is trusting you?"

"No, he doesn't trust me. That's why he's giving me a god damned babysitter."

"All he knows about you is some insane story about being a virus from another universe. You think he's going to take your word that that's true, that you're trustworthy, and that you can kill a monster that nobody has been able to survive an encounter with in decades?"

"I suppose that's fair. And at least he's willing to give me a shot. Where I come from, the order was to kill me on sight. It got awfully annoying."

"And why was this the order?" Trinad asked, obviously suspicious.

"Because I existed. At least at first. Afterwards, they used the excuse that I was a serial killer," he said this blithely, as if it was the least important thing in the world, "but that was just an excuse. The real reason is that they were scared of me. It's funny, though. If they hadn't been trying to kill me, I never would have had to kill any innocent people."

"Wait, are you saying that you were really a serial killer?"

"Yup," again, he said this as if it didn't matter in the least."

"Does the king know this?" Trinad asked, obviously upset.

"Yup."

"And he expects me to work with you?" he shouted, "He should have killed you! How could he even think about..."

"Will you shut up? People are starting to stare." They had left the castle by now, and, sure enough, passersby were staring at them.

Trinad gaped at Mercer for a moment, then abruptly shut his mouth, apparently just realizing it was still open.

"You're mad. You just told me that my king, the man I'm sworn to serve and respect, has me working with a serial killer, and you expect me to worry about drawing a crowd?"

"Look, there were extenuating circumstances, okay? I didn't want to kill them, but I needed to survive. I was the only one who could stop the outbreak, and the only one who could stop Blackwatch from nuking the damn place. If I died, millions of others would have as well. Possibly billions, if the virus escaped Manhattan."

"How the hell does killing innocent people help you survive?" Trinad wasn't buying it.

"Trust me. You DON'T want to know. And I don't plan on telling you unless it's necessary."

"Very well." There was an awkward pause, and then Trinad asked, "Do you have any preparations to make before we leave?"

"Nope."

"Very well. We'll leave in the morning," he said, "Meet me in front of the gates at dawn."


	4. Chapter 4

**Please help me:** In case you haven't guessed, I'm crazy about Prototype fanfics. The problem is, there aren't many of them. If a Prototype fic is worth reading, I've almost certainly read it, usually multiple times. If it's not worth reading, there's a good chance I've read it anyway, as long as it doesn't include yaoi. However, there may be some I've missed. If you know of any good Prototype fics, please let me know. Also, I'd appreciate it if others started writing Prototype fics. As I said, there aren't many of them, and Mercer is a character who's just begging for more material.

Another thing- could somebody finish _Culture Shock_, by Ruskbyte? It's located s/3983128/1/ Culture-Shock. I wouldn't ordinarily ask this, but the author seems to have died.

Lastly, if there are any situations you'd like to see Mercer in, including new stories, let me know, and I'll do my best.

Next, to answer a few questions.

Guesswho- No, this isn't a crossover. It takes place in a generic fantasy universe, but I'm using the magic system from the Codex Alera series, by Jim Butcher.

Trondasan- Thanks. I try to make my story as logical as possible, and I don't like to have any flaws.

Chapter 1

1) Upon further reflection, you're right. Alex should be able to consume the recently dead, and will be able to do so.

2 &3) Also correct, and I will try to remember that in the future.

4) Unless something changes so drastically that I have to rewrite the story from chapter one, Alex WILL NOT GAIN FURIES. He's already hideously powerful, and it's incredibly difficult to write for him without turning him into a god. The reason I chose to use furies for magic is that I specifically did not want him to be able to perform magic.

5) I'm fully aware that Alex is at least slightly insane, and I hope for that to be part of the story somehow. As for the idea of having him hear voices, I strongly considered that, but he's consumed thousands of people, and if he could hear them, I'd have to write for all of them.

Chapter 2

1) Mercer's fighting style will be heavily influenced by the way I played the game. I played on the premise that "There's no kill like overkill," so he will also follow this rule.

2) The Codex Alera books don't explain how one bonds with a fury, so I'll have to make something up, but whatever the method is, Alex learned that he can't do it.

3) Fire hurts. A lot. A tank shell is a momentary explosion whose primary damage is done by shrapnel and the force. That would only do minimal damage to Mercer. Fire, on the other hand, is sustained damage which kills as many cells as possible.

4) Thanks. I liked that bit.

5) They have a better understanding of medicine than in our world. Watercrafters are healers, and my understanding is that when they heal somebody, their mind basically becomes a part of their patient's body, and they gain a detailed knowledge of what is wrong with their patient.

6) Again, Mercer's fighting style will reflect my own. I enjoyed claws. Also, Mercer is violent. He would enjoy eviscerating an army of orcs.

7) Mercer doesn't know enough about this world to come up with a convincing lie. Plus, he finds it refreshing to be able to tell someone who/what he is without them trying to kill him. Also, he's arrogant. He doesn't see any reason to lie, because he could easily handle all of them if they do try to kill him.

Chapter 3

1) He's trying to piss off Trinad. He resents having a "baby sitter," so he has resolved to make it as unpleasant as possible for him. And again, he's arrogant.

Now please stop punching holes in my story.


	5. Chapter 5

This chapter is dedicated to my sister, who is a huge Monty Python fan. And while this chapter will be more than slightly silly, I don't intend to do this often.

**Summary**: Mercer has been chucked into a world of magic. In exchange for help getting home, he has agreed to serve as a king's special agent.

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Alex stared in the direction Trinad was pointing, and burst into laughter. The "beast" that his guide had pointed out to him was a small, white rabbit.

Trinad glared at his charge.

"Do not take this lightly. It is not as harmless as it appears."

"I'm sure. It's probably 'the most foul, cruel, and bad tempered rodent you ever laid eyes on,'" Alex said, still laughing.

"That's one way of putting it, I suppose. But the point is, don't take it lightly. It's killed hundreds of people, and absorbed God knows how many furies. It's a powerful creature, and a deadly one."

Alex, still laughing, said "Have you considered using the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?"

Trinad stared at the laughing madman. "The what?"

Alex laughed some more, before finally calming down. "Well, as Boris said, 'One rabbit stew, coming right up,'" he said, cracking one last joke, before picking up a nearby boulder and sauntering forward.

Alex took aim at the rabbit, and threw the boulder with all of his strength. Just as it was about to hit, the animal leaped about ten feet to its left so quickly that Mercer could barely follow it. Mercer raised an eyebrow, and picked up two more boulders, trhowing them in quick succession. Again, the rabbit easily dodged the attacks. Alex frowned. He'd known it wasn't an ordinary rabbit from what he'd been told, but it was _fast. _Faster than he was. Killing this would be difficult.

Trinad watched this strange man pick up boulders the size of a man's torso and throw them around as if they were pebbles. Scipio had briefed him on Mercer and his abilities, of course, but Trinad had been rather disinclined to take the report at face value. Perhaps there was more truth in the story than he'd expected. Then, suddenly, he _knew _there was at least some truth in Mercer's tale- at the very least, what he'd said about his abilities. Trinad stared as Mercer's right arm crawled and pulsed with black and red tendrils, before turning into an elongated tentacle with a vicious barbed blade at the end.

Mercer shot his Whipfist at the rabbit as fast as he could. He didn't really expect to hit it, not after how quickly the creature had dodged his boulders, but he figured this was a good way to judge the rabbit's abilities. What he most certainly did not expect, however, was for the rabbit to jump onto his Whipfist and bite into it. Mercer growled and shook the tentacle back and forth, hoping to dislodge the beast's big, pointy teeth, but its teeth were indeed big and pointy, and it had a death grip on his tentacle. He slammed his tentacle against the ground hard enough to dent the earth, but again, to no avail. Alex frowned again.

_Damn, this thing is tough. And, _he added, as the rabbit continued gnawing on his Whipfist, _it hurts. Well, my first job is to get the little bastard off of my tentacle. _He considered this for a minute, and then turned his left hand into a set of claws before retracting his Whipfist. As the rabbit came into range, Mercer took careful aim (he didn't want to cut off the Whipfist unless it was absolutely necessary, after all) and swung his claws at the rabbit. As he'd expected, the rabbit pushed off of his tentacle with a truly ridiculous amount of force and went soaring away from the oncoming claw. During the lull in the fighting, Mercer considered his options. His claws were his swiftest attack, yet the rabbit had been able to dodge it even while it was distracted by its determined grip on his tentacle. He could try an area attack such as a knuckle smash, which created a small shockwave, but it had been completely unaffected by his attempts to get it off of his Whipfist, and most creatures would have died during that, whereas knuckle smashes didn't do a whole lot of damage. That left Devastators- the massively powerful attacks that he saved for particularly sticky situations (or when he was especially bored). He smiled. He couldn't miss with a Tendril Barrage. He looked to Trinad.

"Take cover behind that rock over there," Alex said, pointing to a boulder that was about the size of a small hill, "and don't come out until I say it's safe."

Trinad started to argue, and then realized that he had no idea what Mercer was planning, so he ran to the boulder and ducked behind it.

Alex jumped into the air and landed about ten feet from the rabbit, biomass already roiling throughout his body in preparation for his most powerful attack. Before the rabbit could jump at him, hundreds of tendrils flew out from his body, grasping towards anything foolish enough to be within their reach in order to tear it to shreds. And the rabbit, with lightning speed, _dodged_ all but one of the tendrils. The tendril that successfully impaled the rabbit tried to do its job of tearing the creature to shreds, but without another tendril holding onto its victim, it didn't have anything to pull against, so it did minimal damage.

Alex stared, and then jumped just in time to avoid getting an angry rabbit to the face. He glided out of what he guessed to be the maximum range of the rabbit's territorial area and watched his adversary. His adversary watched back. Mercer ducked behind a boulder to get out of the rabbit's line of sight, and sat down to consider his situation.

The issue was, his skills and abilities were suited to two things- combat and stealth. Obviously, combat wasn't working, which meant he had to be stealthy. His standard stealth technique, turning into somebody he'd consumed, obviously wouldn't work, so he would have to be a good deal more clever with his abilities.

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Trinad debated with himself. After those... things... had flown past the rock he was hiding behind, he had figured out why Mercer had told him to hide, and had fully intended to stay hidden until he was told it was safe. But then the sounds of fighting had stopped, and nearly half an hour had passed since he'd heard anything. He was beginning to wonder if Mercer had just left the area, hoping that the rabbit would kill him, and Mercer could claim that he had succeeded. He decided to look around and make sure Alex was still in the area. Slowly, carefully, he peered around the corner of the rock to look at where the rabbit was.

Mercer was nowhere in sight. Trinad swore, and stood up. Just as he was about to go looking for Mercer, he saw a large head of lettuce roll into the rabbit's domain. As he watched, the rabbit hopped over to the lettuce to inspect it. The instant the rabbit touched the lettuce, dozens of black and red tendrils, similar to the ones that had passed by Trinad's hiding space earlier, shot out of the lettuce towards the rabbit in what Trinad failed to recognize as a Critical Pain Devastator.

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If Mercer had still had a mouth, he would have grinned. This time, he was so close to his target that the gaps between the tendrils were far too small to jump between, and at least twenty of his tendril had pierced the little bastard. The tendrils grabbed on and pulled in every direction, tearing the rabbit to shreds. After the rabbit had been properly eviscerated, Mercer transformed back into his normal shape and walked away, whistling.

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I said this at the beginning of chapter 1, but since it's so significant here, I'll repeat it. Mercer can take any form he likes. It won't be perfect unless he's acquired the DNA of his target, because he's just manipulating his physical appearance from memory, but since he's able to change his body at will, it only makes sense that he should be able to manipulate it however he desires. Secondly, he spends his free time playing with his genetic code to develop new abilities. He's currently working on what becomes known as the Tendrils ability in Prototype 2, and should be perfecting it soon.

By the way, I need ideas for missions for Mercer. If you have any suggestions, please let me know via PM.


End file.
